The majority of the world's supply of high purity electronics grade or solar grade silicon is produced using the so-called “trichlorosilane-Siemens” route, wherein a mixture of trichlorosilane and hydrogen gas are placed in contact with electrically heated feed rods of silicon in a pressurized reactor vessel know as a “Siemens reactor.” The diameter of these rods increases over time as silicon is deposited onto their surfaces from the gas mixture as a result of the reduction reaction caused by the high temperature of the rods. The extremely high purity requirements of the silicon make it necessary to deposit then new silicon onto feed rods of silicon, as deposition onto any other materials typically causes contamination of the silicon from those materials. Nevertheless this process is inefficient for a number of reasons including:                1. The rods have a relatively low surface area which is one of the key determinants of the deposition reaction rate,        2. A large amount of electricity is required to keep an increasingly large mass of silicon with a still relatively low ratio of surface area heated to the correct temperature for an extended period of time,        3. It is very labor-intensive to remove the rods. The entire top section of the reactor, which is shaped like a bell, has to be unbolted and lifted to access the rods. The rods must then be removed, and transported to a separate location for cutting and/or crushing and packaging, or melting into ingots. This excessive amount of handling results in high down-times for the reactors during each batch cycle and can also introduce impurities into the silicon. And,        4. New feed rods must be manufactured and reinstalled into the reactors for the cycle to recommence.        
Information relevant to the present invention can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,893,850, 4,242,307, 4,265,859, 4,272,488, 4,590,024, 4,710,260, 4,981,102, 5,006,317, 6,395,249, 6,861,144, 4,176,166, 2,904,404, 2,943,918, 3,016,291, 3,071,444, 3,168,422, 3,733,387, 3,865,647, 4,054,641, 4,710,260, 2,962,363, 4,125,592, 4,127,630, 4,242,697, 4,246,249, 4,282,184, 4,314,525, 4,353,875, 4,547,258 and US Patent Publication No. 2005-0201908 and non-US Patents: WO03106338A1 (PCT), 1292640 (DE), 2002-176653 (JP laid open pub. no.) and 37-17454 (JP); each of the foregoing United States Patents and non-United States Patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference. Each one of these referenced items, however, suffers from one or more of the limitations cited above.